


A Glitched Death

by SilverDragonMS



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Dis-tendril-ment, Dismemberment except a tendril/tentacle gets cut-off, Flashbacks, Forced God Of Destruction Error, M/M, Multi, Nightmares, Not PTSD related tho, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Pining, Please comment what needs to be tagged, Threats of Violence, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2020-08-23 16:56:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20246200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverDragonMS/pseuds/SilverDragonMS
Summary: ~“You’ll come back, right?”“Of course I will. I love you so much,” the god spoke, placing a gentle kiss on his love’s head.“Love you too, Reaper.” he smiled, bittersweet as he knew it would be a long time before he would see his love again.~===================But the multiverse had other plans.[Next update: ??? See the author's note on Chapter 9. On a semi-hiatus]





	1. The Mistake

~_“You’ll come back, right?”_

_“Of course I will. I love you so much,” the god spoke, placing a gentle kiss on his love’s head._

_“Love you too, Reaper.” he smiled, bittersweet as he knew it would be a long time before he would see his love again._~

‘But it didn’t happen soon enough’ Error thought, staring into a one-way portal at his love. His love, Death, was with a version of himself, or rather, who he used to be.

‘He looked happy’, Error thought, tears pricking at the edge of his sockets.

Truly, it wasn’t meant to turn out this way, for him to become an Error. He had finally gotten free of the Save Screen, finally saw the Sun and the stars on the surface. He only wished that Death, his Reaper, was there to see it with him. Every so often, however, he could faintly feel his presence, most likely fulfilling his job as Death. Error (but back then he wasn’t Error was he) had missed him but knew that his love was busy. He never minded waiting after all.

Then, the accident happened. His counterpart had talked him into getting back into science, wanting to see if it was possible to travel between the surface and underground through the save screen as they could do with their shortcuts. They had figured that it would be an easier way for larger monsters to get out of the underground, particularly those who needed special accommodations such as water to breathe, within a set timespan. And eventually, they hoped to be able to use it as a traveling system, so monsters and humans could see what was their home for so long, and maybe alter it just enough to make it an adaptable form of transportation.

The preliminary tests went well, but then he got invested. They were getting close, but his counterpart had said that there was no easy way for them to continue it without more people and more money. Error, no, Geno had scoffed. He wanted to see it through, just to know that he could.

And that’s where it all went **wrong**.

He got overconfident and activated the machine that was the fruits of their labor alone. Something messed up the machine, though he might have messed it up himself. And then he was here, in the white void. Alone.

The rest was a blur, but he had changed. He wasn’t Geno anymore. No, he had made an Error, become an Error. . . He was supposed to have waited on the surface for him. For Reaper.

Time had no real meaning here, so he was never sure exactly how much time had passed, but he had found his love again, albeit, only he could truly see him. Reaper had found another timeline, one where Geno had been alone in the save screen and had never gotten out. Error could tell that Reaper had moved on, if not that, then at least he was happy. . . But then why did it hurt so much?

All Error could do now was watch as his love moved on. He had always wanted him to be happy. Maybe now, Death could be.

============================

Reaper could never forget the last time he had seen Geno, _his_ Geno. He had been summoned by the King of the Gods, Asgore, to help aid in a fight that had been taking place in his realm. It had taken a very long time to get settled, and by then when he returned to the save screen, he was met with nothing. He felt the change in that void though, that Geno had gotten out of there, that he had finally reached the surface. He was so happy for him.

Eventually, his work returned to normal, though now he was tasked to help out the surface world his love now resided in. He would always sneak glimpses of him, just to see that he was okay. He had wanted to be able to spend more than a few fleeting seconds with him, but after the fight hat had taken place back home. . . it was safe to say that he didn’t have much vacation time left. He was thankful enough that he could tell that Geno was happy now, so much more than he was back in the save screen. If only he had lingered more. . .

It had been months since the last trip there, and when he came back to try and find his love, he was nowhere to be seen. He had panicked, locating the Sans that lived there to ask him where Geno had gone, only to be met with confusion. Reaper had thought it was a joke, how could you forget a version of yourself that had a melted eye socket and a permanent scar across his chest? Sans had assumed Reaper was joking, and Reaper had stilled. It was as if Geno had never existed.

Reaper was heartbroken. His love had vanished like so many of the Gasters of each world had supposedly done. He had scoured the void shortly thereafter for days on end, hoping that he could find him again. But it began to wear on him, so he redirected his search to stick to Geno’s world, only to find a different timeline. A different Geno. . . He had sobbed for what felt like hours. _His_ Geno was no more. He had felt as if whatever SOUL he had shattered at that revelation.

He had returned to that timeline, determined to at least try to start again, this time he would watch over his love more closely. But even after so long, he had found that it just wasn’t the same. _This_ Geno could never replace _his_ Geno, and that was the hardest thing to accept. So he had simply decided to stay friends with this new Geno, hoping that wherever his love had gone, that he’d be okay. That even though Reaper would miss him, that Geno would never forget him like Reaper was determined to never forget him. That Geno would be happy, even if Reaper never got to see him or his smile again. . .

================================

** _But the multiverse had other plans._ **


	2. The Protector

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Geno-Error just doing Geno-Error things. Also, Ink appears.  
Happy 4th Anniversary Undertale
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: Error does canon Error things, and implied threats of violence.

Time had passed again, and Error began to notice that things were  _ different _ . This wasn’t a very noticeable difference at first, but he began to feel that something wasn’t quite right with his “new home” if you could even call it that. Back when he had first changed into Error, he had seen that his magic had no longer relied solely on bones and blasters, and had become as corrupted as he had become and he could now form blue strings from his fingertips. It scared him at first, but it was not the worst of the changes. He had been able to hear a faint murmuring of voices around him, constantly. Now however it seemed to be so much louder, enough that he could understand what they were saying.

*Why aren’t you doing anything?*

*You should be out there already!*

*Don’t you give a shit about the multiverse?!*

*Since when did Error become this lazy?*

*STOP INK ALREADY!!!*

Error never did see if his one-way portals could be walked through, granted he only ever observed the worlds that he had access to. The “Ink” the voices kept referring to though. . . He was at a loss. Besides Reaper, Reaper’s brother, and his friends from his and his counterpart’s world he never met anyone else. Even then, meeting Reaper was a coincidence, happening only because he was supposed to die back in the Save Screen.

He was startled out of his thoughts by what felt like a yank on his SOUL, making him fall to the “floor” in pain. His vision glitched for a moment, but he sat up soon enough, rubbing at his sternum with his hand. He made one of his one-way portals if only to try and find out what the voices kept yelling at him about.

He was looking at what seemed to be a surface timeline, one of many he’d seen so far, but something was wrong here. The sky was warped as if there was a trick mirror reflecting the city he was viewing. He saw the “trick mirror” seem to descend, almost in slow-motion, until it collided with the ground. There was a flash of light, and then he saw nothing. There was simply a void left where the surface world was supposed to be.

He was terrified.

“WhAt tHe HELL wAs THat” he spoke, the glitched mess that his voice was seeming to echo through space.

*Uh oh, Ink went overboard.*

*NOW YOU GET IT!*

*Not enough space for all of these worlds.*

“WH-whAT dO yOU MeaN nOt eNoUGh SpaCE?” he asked the voices, starting to become nervous at the implications of “Ink” going overboard.

*Too many AUs. Not enough space for them.*

*IT’S FRICKING CLEAN-UP TIME!*

* Fewer copies means more space.*

*You gotta take lives to save lives.*

“ThAt DoEsN’t mAke SenSE. . .” Error mumbled, fully aware that no matter how quietly he talked, the voices would still hear him and comment. He ignored them, lost in his thoughts.

‘Destroy the copies, huh? Is that why I’m here? Sounds. . . bad. Why do I have to do this?’

*You do realize the longer you take, the more at risk the AUs are, right?*

He startled at the voice’s tone, reminding him of when Papyrus would scold him for slacking off at cleaning up his part of the room he and his counterpart had shared. . . He smiled sadly at the thought.

He got up from his place on the ground and looked back at the void that filled the portal. 

‘This is my job now, huh.’ he sighed, then drew on his magic to force the portal to zoom out, far enough that he could see the spiderweb of worlds spread out before him. 

He observed them all for a while, amazed at the sheer amount that existed. Eventually, he looked to the edges of the web, finding that there were indeed copies of several worlds, each with varying amounts of differences. Some had monsters from other copies of worlds, while some had meaner or nicer humans or monsters. The sheer number of copies was almost more than he ever thought possible.

Almost.

He readied his magic, strings already forming around his fingers as he concentrated on his destination. 

Undertale copy #394, surface timeline, everyone saved AU. 

He felt a pit grow in his non-existent stomach as he reached his arm through the portal, finding purchase with the ground of that world. He took a deep breath, then jumped through.

* * *

He never truly found out what he did to that world. All that he remembers is one moment looking into the terrified face of the Frisk of that world, and then waking up on the “floor” of the anti-void, dust lingering on his hands and jacket. He thought that he would scream at that, but he just stared, the voices alternating between congratulating him and mocking him.

He felt numb. Apathetic. As if nothing mattered at that moment. It wasn’t until that disappointed voice that reminded him so much of when Papyrus would get annoyed spoke again, that he snapped out of it.

*Looks like Ink noticed that world missing. Wonder what he’s planning.*

The glitchy skeleton turned around quickly, slightly injuring his neck in the process, to see the portal still open to the outer web of the worlds. There was a skeleton there, dressed in browns with a long brown gradient scarf trailing behind him. Error could see the various paints on the sash that he wore, along with the gigantic paintbrush that was strapped to his back. But the strangest part was his eyelights, they seemed to change every time the skeleton blinked. The skeleton looked confused, almost upset, at the space the copy once occupied. 

Error then felt a pull on his SOUL again, not as intense but enough to force him to get closer to the portal. He felt the need to go through it, to interact with this Ink that he knew very little about. So he raised his hand and sent his strings through. He was suddenly face-to-face with the skeleton he had been watching, and they both stilled at the sight of one another.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen an outcode like you before” the skeleton spoke, his expression neutral as he stared at Error. 

“I’m ErROr. AnD iS yOuR nAmE InK?” Error asked, the other skeleton tilting his head to the side curiously. Then the other smiled.

“Yeah, I’m Ink. They all call me the Protector as well” Ink stated, gesturing at the worlds around them. “I didn’t understand that name at first, but I think I might now.”

Error caught on quickly to what Ink said, realizing that he had potentially made an enemy, one that he never intended to make. Maybe he could explain himself?

“I-i DiDn’T Do ThIs On PurPOsE. Th-THeRe wAs--” Error tried to explain, but Ink merely held up his hand and shook his head.

“I don’t really care what your reasons are, though you don’t seem to have any ill will towards any of these creations, I don’t appreciate the fact that a world has disappeared because of something you did.” Ink spoke, no emotion evident in his words. Error saw his hand move across the paint vials on his sash, resting on the bright red one. “I’ll tell you what, Error, you’ll have a few more chances to change your ways, to not destroy another world and live peacefully instead. If you fail to do so, well. . . Let’s just say that you won’t like me when I’m angry.”

Error was dumbfounded. He never got the chance to explain himself or why he had destroyed an AU, and Ink was already threatening him. He had a few chances, right? Maybe things would be okay if he used his chances to explain what had happened, then Ink would be understanding. Right? 

He accepted the terms, and they shook on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I’m having a ton of fun writing this story, so expect monthly updates until I have enough written to post twice a month. And now, some behind the scenes stuff:  
-I wasn’t completely sure if I was going to continue this story, and was going to leave it as a one-shot, but then realized I could combine two story ideas into one and create this huge AfterDeath story.  
-I was never quite sure how I wanted to write Ink or Error [or any of the other characters that will show up later], so if they seem a bit off at times, I’m working on developing these characters more.  
-Error blacking out before destroying a world was partially due to me not wanting to write a giant text block about him destroying a world. Only partially though  
-Oh yeah, is my love of Forced God of Destruction Error showing? I thought about having Fate and Destiny as characters, but quickly realized that it would get to be super difficult to pull off. So this is how Error gets forced to destroy in this story. Thank @harrish6 for the ideas.  
-This is also the start of alternating perspectives, so the next chapter is all from Reaper’s point of view. It works out very well for this story.


	3. The Two Overseers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inevitably, there's a council meeting. Also, Reaper is there.

Reaper was on his phone texting Geno about whatever happened to pop into his head as he waited for the first “Council Meeting” to start. He hadn’t expected to be here, let alone for Ink to call for a "Council", to be perfectly honest. 

He had known about Ink for some time, especially since he was the reason that Reaper was called to fight for his realm in the first place. The attack was from an outside force, “outcodes” Lord Asgore had said, and Ink was in charge of the gods at the time, relaying every weakness he knew about the enemy to the inhabitants of “Reapertale”, as he had called Reaper's home. They had owed him after that, Reaper especially. So when he was requested to come to this “Council” thing, he hadn’t questioned it.

Now, here he was, floating a bit above his seat and off to the side where he wouldn’t accidentally kill anyone with his touch. It had been a few minutes, but everyone in the room was growing restless waiting for Ink to arrive. He was late, though judging by the expressions of those at the head of the table, this was a regular occurrence.

Suddenly, the door opened and a disheveled looking Ink stepped through. He took his place at the head of the table, and everyone stared as he took a few breaths before speaking.

“Friends, acquaintances, and others. I have called you all here to discuss something important,” he spoke, more seriously than Reaper had ever heard him speak. 

“There has been a disturbance in the multiverse. Someone has been going around and disposing of several of our connected universes, all within the span of about two weeks,” Ink explained, as the room became tense, “For now, only copies have been attacked, but it's unclear whether this will spread to the core worlds, those being your homes, or if the destruction will stick to only being copies.”

“Wh-who would do such a thing?” Papyrus of Red Swapfell questioned, the other inhabitants of the room beginning to echo the question, a few panicking at the thought of losing their homes. 

"Is it Nightmare?" Reaper heard a Fell Sans ask, loud enough to attract the attention of the yellow cloaked skeleton next to Ink. "Th' asshole has it out fer us anyway, why not graduate from crimes ta straight-up murder!"

His accusation was met with a lot of agreement, the cloaked skeleton looking more and more distressed and upset as it continued.

“His name,” Ink began, his voice loud and sudden enough to quiet the room, “is Error. He is a very powerful outcode, who I have fought once or twice, always ending in a draw. Nightmare hasn't had anything to do with the attacks as of yet, and we're hoping it stays that way.”

‘Error, huh.’ Reaper thought to himself, interest piqued. ‘Wonder what he’s like.’

The room filled with voices again, many Fell-verse monsters suggesting ways to trap the outcode to stop the destruction. Reaper could tell that this wasn't going anywhere, watching as the other monsters in the room began arguing with each other.

“For now,” Ink spoke up again, the room going quiet once more. “I think that you all should keep watch, make sure that your worlds are safe from him. His main attack is blue strings, but he also uses glitched bone attacks and blasters. He looks like a sans, bones are primarily black and red, and he wears those same colors. Once I know more, myself or Dream will be sure to spread the word around.”

The meeting ended shortly thereafter, and Reaper got up to leave, hoping to spend some time with Geno in person, only to get stopped by another skeleton in front of him. One of the ones who sat closest to Ink during the meeting.

“Oh, you must be Reaper, correct?” the skeleton questioned, bright yellow eyelights staring up at him with a pleasant smile on their face.

“Yes, and may I ask your name?” Reaper smirked, holding out a hand in the skeleton’s direction, fully intending for the other to flinch back away from him.

“I’m Dream, of Dreamtale,” he replied and took ahold of Reaper’s hand, smile widening with barely concealed amusement as Reaper flinched.

He wasn’t expecting the other to touch him, and when he didn’t immediately fall to dust, Reaper stared at him in surprise.

“H-how did you know that you wouldn’t die from that?!” Reaper exclaimed, Dream laughing at his response.

“I’m technically a god as well,” he replied between his laughter, shaking Reaper’s hand before withdrawing. “Though I guess guardian is closer to my title. I’m called the guardian of positivity and work alongside Ink, as both a co-worker and a friend. I noticed that you seemed to be interested when Error was mentioned, so I thought that you might be able to help us out a bit more than the others, especially considering your… abilities.”

“Sure, though interest might be pushing it. I’ve only just learned about the guy today.”

Dream waved off his explanation, gesturing for him to follow him over to where Ink was currently sitting with his head resting on his crossed arms, exhausted from whatever he was doing prior. Reaper smirked at the sight, Ink truly _looked like Death_.

“Ink? I was wondering if you wanted to join in on the conversation?” Dream asked Ink, placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking him.

Ink made a questioning noise as he lifted his head and stretched his arms in front of him. 

“We were gonna talk about Error with Reaper since he can traverse the worlds like us.” Dream huffed in amusement, Ink looking up with bleary eyelights at the two, which were slowly shifting from simple pastel shapes to the usual ever-changing rainbow eyelights he had.

“Yeah, let’s do that,” he mumbled, standing up and rubbing his eyes before looking at the two, no longer looking as exhausted as he had been.

“What exactly do I need to know that you wanted to talk to me so badly?” Reaper questioned, slightly impatient that he was being kept away from Geno longer than he planned.

Ink nodded for a moment, then pulled out a notebook from his inventory. He flipped to a page, nodded again, then turned it around to show Dream and Reaper.

“This is Error,” he stated, pointing to the picture of a dark skeleton, with mismatched eyes and a crazed yellow grin on his face. “I’m not too sure where he came from, but he’s ruthless in his attacks. Though, he never seems to be fully aware that he’s attacking a world once he lands in it.”

“Not fully aware. . . like he’s possessed?” Dream questioned, and Ink shook his head.

“More like he’s acting on impulse, or auto-pilot I guess you could say,” Ink closed the book, putting it back into his inventory to instead focus his gaze on the two skeletons near him. “Now, this is why I wanted to speak with you Death. You can see when a monster or human is supposed to die, right?”

“To an extent, yes,” Reaper nodded, and Ink seemed satisfied.

“I want you to see if you can get your power to work on a larger scale. See if you can determine which worlds are being targeted based on when they are supposed to die. If we can somehow get a few steps ahead of Error, then maybe we’ll be able to stop him.”

Reaper paused for a second, then put a hand to his chin in thought.

“And if my powers can't work to that degree?”

“Then you can work with me,” Dream spoke up, a smile on his face, “since I can feel the emotions of people, I’ll be able to feel when the positivity of a world turns to despair, to an extent of course.”

“Besides that, you’ll be our lookout,” Ink said, a confident smile on his face. “Your regular duties as Death mean that you are practically everywhere already. I’m just going to ask that you divert your focus more to the copies on the outer edge of the multiverse instead of just the core worlds. I can always talk to your Asgore so that you have the 'all clear' to do this job.”

Reaper nodded, though stunned at how well thought out their plan was. Although he wasn’t sure he could do what they were asking, he figured that, if nothing else, it was worth looking into.

“As long as you can convince Asgore, I can help you. If you need an extra set of eyes, tell him that my brother, Respite, is needed as well. That way we can cover more ground.”

The two skeletons smiled at Reaper, his suggestion already being decided as a part of their plan. Ink held out his hand, and Reaper grasped it as they shook on it.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Death.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Hope you enjoyed, and now more fun behind the scenes stuff:
> 
> -The Geno mentioned is a copy of the original Aftertale where Geno never got in contact with the Sans that took his place. So he’s trapped in the Save Screen.
> 
> -Reaper is not in love with this Geno, because while he is similar to his ex(?) they are too different for him to try and start a relationship, among other reasons.
> 
> -Time passed between the last chapter and this one, so Error did destroy more AUs and Ink is exhausted because he’s been chasing Error around. They haven’t had a REAL fight yet.
> 
> -One of my headcanons for Death is that while he has the Death-touch, it doesn’t affect people in very specific situations, for example, Dream doesn’t have a home AU(?), so he’s like a glitch or like Geno. Ink can’t die in general, really (this headcanon is from a few other fanfics). Whether or not I add more to this list is debatable.
> 
> -There have been minor changes from what I had originally, but hey, longer chapter.]
> 
> I got fanart for this story! Links below:  
https://obscuresanshovel.tumblr.com/post/187960198075/somethin-spoilery-for-silverdragonmss-fic-a  
https://obscuresanshovel.tumblr.com/post/187841280680/some-fanart-for-silverdragonms-sorta-for-their?is_highlighted_post=1


	4. The Gang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Error watches a fight, gets harrassed, then gets in trouble. Pretty much in that order.
> 
> Alternate Title: The long chapter with a lot of build-up, whose ending might lead to annoyed readers ^U^"

Error once again found himself in the anti-void covered in dust. He was so tired of losing control of his own body every time he did this, but, according to the voices, it had to be done. However, there was no end to be seen. Ink had continued to create more and more copies, spin-offs, and threats to the entire Multiverse, where it would begin caving in on itself. He was starting to run himself ragged with all the work he was doing, magic levels beginning to protest its overuse.

Error laid down on his back, staring up at the “ceiling” of his home. The endless white was maddening, so he had decided to attempt to “liven the place up” by throwing his strings up so they hung within reach. It was the only real decor he had at the moment, he tried not to question how they managed to hang up there from seemingly nothing, but he had been thinking about maybe hopping into a surface world to try and buy some furniture, maybe even a beanbag chair. He smiled at the thought of owning anything to make the place less barren, less maddeningly white. 

*Looks like Night’s at it again.*

Error furrowed his brow bones in confusion at the voice’s words. Another monster he didn’t know, who was apparently quite significant since the other voices joined in almost immediately.

*Ink’s fighting him with Dream! Never thought Dream’d muster up the courage to do that.*

*Ah, the King of Darkness. Such a foreboding title for such a small fry.*

*Looks like it’s just him this time. Wonder where his cronies ran off to.*

*ERROR, YOU SHOULD GO FIGHT THEM!*

“SiNcE WHEN HavE I eVeR JoINeD a FiGHt JuSt BecAUse?! ThErE’s LitERaLLy NO ReAsOn fOr Me tO Be ThErE!” Error yelled at the voices, and for once they quieted for a moment. He sighed in relief at the moment of quiet, bringing a hand up to rub his eyes. Then the voice spoke up.

*Reaper is with them.*

Error shot up at that, hands shaking as he opened a window-like portal to see the world they were in. It was immediately apparent that it was an underground timeline, a darkened ceiling with dead and decaying trees scattered about, dusty snow covering the ground. 

‘Must be an Underfell AU,’ Error guessed and was proven correct when he spotted a heavily graffitied “Welcome to Dustdin” sign in the distance. 

The main event, however, was in the center of the town, where an inky black skeleton stood holding the resident Papyrus by the neck with one of his many long black tendrils that sprouted from his back. He was using them to block the attacks Ink made with his brush and paint, while a skeleton in a yellow cape stood nearby with a shiny gold bow and arrow pointed at the two fighting skeletons. Ink seemed very determined to get the other to drop the Papyrus, eyelights switching between various shapes, all of them colored red, though he never moved from his spot, the hostage most likely being the reason. Error couldn’t see Reaper and frantically looked around the scene before him, hoping that he hadn’t gotten involved in the fighting, only to sigh in relief when he spotted him sitting up in a tree a fair distance away, unharmed. 

*You know, for not wanting to ruin anything, you sure do watch your ex a lot.*

*Wonder how long this fight’s gonna last. Ink doesn’t seem to be winning.*

*Not to mention, Nightmare isn’t even breaking a sweat yet.*

Error ignored the voices, choosing to instead watch as Nightmare began to walk back into his dark void of a portal, the Papyrus in his grasp beginning to notice his potential fate. He began to plead with Nightmare to let him go, that he’d do anything the dark skeleton wanted if he’d just be set free from his hold. Nightmare’s smile grew more and more with each beg and plea, laughing when the poor skeleton monster hanging from his grip began crying in fear. 

That’s when Error saw a shadow moving across the ground, and his gaze immediately snapped back to the tree where Reaper had been, but the god wasn’t there anymore. Hurriedly he tried to locate him again when Error’s gaze returned to the fight at the sound of a gasp and a wet splat from the snowy ground. Nightmare’s hold on the skeleton monster’s neck had been severed easily by Death’s scythe, cold glare and unsettling grin directed at the now wounded dark skeleton, weapon poised to sever his head in a single motion. The Papyrus had crawled away as fast as he could towards the other two skeletons opposite his captor, the yellow cloaked skeleton dropping his bow to turn his attention to him, while Ink held his brush at the ready to continue fighting if need be.

“ **Are you done yet, false king?** ” Reaper spoke, his “Death voice” as Error once called it echoing through the abandoned town. “ **If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave this place, before I decide to change my mind about letting you live.** ”

Nightmare simply glanced at Death over his shoulder and smirked. 

“I have a feeling we’ll be seeing each other again soon enough,  _ Lord  _ Death,” Nightmare laughed, as the void-like portal appeared underneath him and he fell through.

Error breathed a sigh of relief once Nightmare was gone, gaze lingering on Reaper, making sure that he was truly okay, before closing the window completely. He lay back down with an arm over his eyes, adrenaline running through his mana lines as he tried desperately to get his breathing back under control from the scene that had transpired.

*Don’t you think it’s strange how Reaper was helping Ink?*

Error thought over what he had heard from the voice, and the answer his mind supplied was one he wished he could change, or at least that it wasn’t the truth. 

‘Reaper and I are enemies now...’

The thought saddened him, but he had already accepted that what they had together long ago was over. What were the chances that Reaper would even recognize Error as the love he’d lost? Error felt tears prick at his sockets, and he started to try and rub them away before the voices noticed his “weakness” and ganged up on him again. Then that voice returned.

*You know, I bet Nightmare’s got a portal to his hideout still open right now. He didn’t have his buddies with him this time, which I bet means they went out for supplies while Ink wasn’t looking.*

“WhY wOUld I wAnT tO gO ThErE?” Error questioned the voice, and the others snickered as the voice spoke again. 

*Oh Error, your life would be so much easier if you just listened to us. You could have ALLIES, people to help you out, if you’re lucky anyway. For all you know, Nightmare might just have enough pity on you to help.*

He tried to ignore the laughter and jeers that were thrown his way after that, and instead opened a portal to a copy that was on the surface. If he was going to try and find one of Nightmare’s portals, he may as well get his beanbag chair in the meantime.

* * *

The streets were crowded with people and monsters, though they never seemed to pay Error any mind with his skull covered by his jacket’s hood. He’d never been so thankful for it until now, otherwise who knows what would have happened. 

He had somehow managed to keep himself under control when he got to this world, so he wouldn’t end up alerting Ink to his presence so soon after his last “outing”. He had wandered the streets for a few minutes, avoiding running into anyone who happened to be near him, while keeping his head down so no one would see his face. As he was passing what looked to be a hobby store (maybe he should try something like knitting or crocheting, just to have something to do in his spare time), he saw another skeleton with his hood drawn up disappear into an alleyway down the street. Error quickly glanced around him and quickly stepped into the furniture store next door. 

He knew he needed to hurry, so he found the giant beanbag chair he had been wanting (and it was a blood-red color too, blue stitching holding the fabric together) and quickly shoved it into his inventory when no one was looking. He ran outside of the store and ducked into the alleyway down the street, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. He couldn’t help but giggle at the fact that he stole something without getting caught, something he hadn’t had to do since he was young and on the streets. When his quiet laughter had stopped, he glanced up and looked around at the alley he was in, sockets widening at the sight of a shadowy portal slowly closing at the other end of it. He started booking it down the alley, diving into it before it closed, and landing against something hard on the other side.

It was quiet, so quiet that he felt like he couldn’t breathe, not that he needed to do so in the first place. Slowly, he opened his sockets, looking around to see himself surrounded by other skeletons. They seemed shocked at first, but their expressions quickly faded into amusement.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” A snide voice spoke.

He whipped his head towards the voice, looking up into pitch-black voids that made up another skeleton’s sockets, skull stained with streaks of black from his sockets and a too-wide grin on his face.

“Think we should take ‘im to the boss, Killer?” another more gravelly voice spoke, almost against Error’s skull. He flinched, leaning away from them as he took in the sight of a much taller and broader skeleton, with a singular red eyelight and a gaping hole in his head. He too wore an almost crazed grin on his face.

“Hey, once you two boneheads are done talking at my stalker, you mind getting him off of me?!” A slightly higher pitched voice spoke from beneath Error, causing him to jump and quickly scramble away from the skeleton he had landed on top of.

The previously crushed skeleton sat up, rubbing his back where Error had landed on him and glared at him with red and purple eyelights. Besides his eyes, the skeleton looked to be the most normal-looking Error had seen thus far.

“S-SorRY AbOUt tHaT,” Error stuttered, both embarrassed and fearful of the monsters around him.

“Huh, since when does fresh meat sound so terrible,” the giant skeleton spoke, earning himself a jab in the ribs by the skeleton he had previously called Killer.

The monster Error had landed on sighed in annoyance, then stood up, brushing himself off, and looked down at Error.

“Pretty sure I know who you are. Pretty sure Paps knows too,” he spoke, taking a step closer as if sizing him up, “and if we’re both correct, then the boss wanted to meet with you anyway.”

He smirked then held out a hand.

“The name’s Dust, and welcome to Haventale, little glitch. The current hideout of Nightmare’s Gang.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Oh cliffhangers. This chapter got long fast, so you’ll have to deal with it for about two months since Reaper’s chapter is next, and trust me, it's a good one. ^U^ Behind the scenes:  
-Error still cares about Reaper, immensely. He worries about seeing him face-to-face, so he just looks in on him from time to time, but less so now.  
-Death Touch doesn’t work on Nightmare, so Reaper can only harm him with magic attacks and weapons. This means that Nighty makes the list of characters Death doesn't affect.  
-I hinted at Error taking up crocheting, mostly because he does that canonically, but also why not. And yes, he did steal a beanbag chair. Also cuz why not.]


	5. The Save Screen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reaper visits a friend...  
Things don't go well  

> 
> Warning(s): Flashbacks

Reaper would never admit to how tired his new job was making him. Not to his brother and especially not to Geno. Though he must be losing his acting ability since Geno immediately called him out on his bullshit the second he stepped foot in the Save Screen.

“You really need to take better care of yourself,” Geno huffed, dragging Reaper by the hand towards the couch that had been gifted to him. Reaper chuckled at how forceful his friend was, trying to make him rest by pulling him over the armrest so he landed face-first onto the plush fabric. 

“I know, I know,” Reaper spoke through the puffy beige fabric of the couch, “just had a lot of work to do recently, barely any time to sleep.”

“Honestly, since when does work keep you from slacking off to come and see me? That’s so unlike you Reaps.”

Reaper could hear the almost pout in his voice, and he chuckled a bit until he felt his smile start to become sad. ‘So similar to each other...’

“Since when do you want me to slack off? Thought you kept telling me to get off of my lazy butt last time I was here,” Reaper chuckled, lifting his head onto his hands so he could watch as Geno sputtered and flushed at his words.

“Y-you’re twisting my words against me!” he finally screamed, flinging one of the ugly brown throw pillows at Reaper’s face. “You were sitting on me when I fell asleep on this stupid couch and you wouldn’t move you utter ass!”

“Whatever you say, Geno~” Reaper sang out his name, making said skeleton huff again in annoyance and turn away from him.

"Remind me again why I decided to befriend you."

“Oh let me count the ways~” Reaper sang again, and the other practically fell over trying to smother Reaper with the pillow.

Reaper laughed, the sound muffled from the force behind the smothering, and when the pressure was finally let up, Reaper could see how a smile worked its way onto the other's face despite fighting to hold a pout. Geno wasn't going to give him the satisfaction, and he knows that he was going to be ignored until Geno decided he was done being annoyed at him. Laughter tapering off into a sigh, Reaper flipped over onto his back to stare up into the “sky” of the Save Screen, and let his mind wander. Though his thoughts would always turn to Geno, _ his _Geno that is, and not the copy he was currently being ignored by. 

He knows it's not healthy to linger on the should haves and that he really did need to move on from his little Geno, and yet he couldn’t help but think that the other was still out there somewhere, waiting for him. But he had looked everywhere, hadn’t he? No one from that original timeline remembered _anything _that happened. It always hurt to know that he could have looked harder, _ should have _looked much more and for far longer than he had. At the very least, he should’ve made an effort to spend time with him before. . . He should’ve _ been there_, he should’ve --

“Reaps? You’re getting that look on your face again.” the <strike>fake</strike> Geno said.

“Hm? Oh, it’s nothing. Just a little tired,” Reaper lied, rubbing at his face where he knew cyan tears were gathering in the corners of his eyes. “What were you saying?”

Geno didn’t say anything for a while, just watching as Reaper rubbed at his sockets, concern growing evident on his face. 

“. . . I’m worried about you Reaper. Ever since we’ve met, you’ve gotten… sadder the longer you’ve been around me. I-is it something I've done?”

Reaper froze. He never thought that he’d been so obvious with his feelings, trying to keep them hidden so that he could try again with this Geno. He swore he had managed to keep it all contained so well, for so long, but what good that was doing him now. Why is it now of all times that he’s breaking down? He was so good at pretending, faking being happy spending time with someone who looked so similar to his lost love until he was sure that it was starting to become actual happiness if not contentment. Why now of all times was he about to lose it?

“Are you ever tell me the truth and say what’s wrong?” Geno spoke again, this time leaning over Reaper’s face so they made eye-contact.

Reaper just stared straight ahead, not wanting to ruin the one good thing he had going for him, <strike>no matter how much it kills him inside</strike>. Then Geno tried to touch him, to cup his hand on the side of Reaper’s face, and the action had Reaper shortcutting off the couch, walking away from Geno before he lost what little control over himself he had left.

“Reaper? Reaps, wait!” Geno yelled, his slippered feet getting closer to where Reaper stood, motionless, “W-we don’t have to talk, j-just stay here okay? C-C’mon Reaps, you only got here a few minutes ago.”

Reaper made no move that he heard any of what Geno said, simply staring at him as Geno reached for his hand, holding it in a way that made his soul clench painfully at the care in the familiar motions.

“I-I care about you, Reaps.”

And Reaper **shattered**.

* * *

~ _ ”Haha, oh Geno, you’re so cute,” Reaper laughed, wheezing slightly and clutching at his side where his ribs were broken. _

_ “I’m trying to be serious you utter ass!” Geno shrieked, letting go of the other’s hand to throw the bandages he had been holding at his injured boyfriend. _

_ “I can’t believe you. You show up here, almost fainting on top of me from magic loss and pain, only to laugh like a fucking child when I try to help bandage you up! Is this how you react to Respite when he says he cares about you?!” Geno’s voice got higher pitched as he yelled at Reaper, who only giggled at how annoyed his boyfriend was getting. _

_ “Oh, c’mon now Geno. I’m not that bad, right?” Reaper teased, reaching for the bandages that landed next to him, placing his injured hand back on Geno’s lap, “Besides, Gen, you love me anyway, don’t you?” _

_ “I do and I hate it,” Geno sighed, fondly smiling. _

_ They fell to silence for a while. Reaper stealing glances at the other, while he worked on stopping the wounds from bleeding out any more. It was comfortable, and Reaper felt content, thinking about how lucky he was that he had someone like Geno. Then he got an idea. _

_ “I’ll tell you what, Gen, once I’m all bandaged up, how about I grab Res and we can all watch a movie later. I’ll grab a bunch and you chose which ones we watch. Sound like fun?” _

_ Geno seemed to think for a moment before he spoke again, completely deadpan. _

_ “I dunno Reaps, I might try to get your brother to agree that you’re horrible to the both of us and make him disown you.” _

_ Reaper squawked in mock offense, hand on his chest and mouth agape as Geno’s expression cracked into a smirk, barely holding in laughter. _

_ “I can’t believe this, first my beloved boyfriend and now my brother? Who would do such a thing?” Reaper attempted to fall back on the couch they were on, only for Geno to pull on his arm. Hard. _

_ “Ow, fuck, Geno! That hurt!” _

_ “S-sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean to do that!” Geno scrambled to help Reaper get comfortable again, then gently lifted his boyfriend’s arm to see what the damage was. “Nothing got worse, thankfully, but it is technically your own damn fault you drama king.” _

_ “I prefer the term drama Lord, thank you very much.” Reaper snarked, a shit-eating grin on his face while Geno rolled his eye. _

_ “Yes yes, your majesty,” he sighed, smiling as he lifted Reaper’s hand and kissed the back of it, “You're lucky I love you.” _

_ Reaper smiled back. _

_ “And I wouldn’t trade my luck for anything in the entire Multiverse, because I love you too.”~_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Happy Holidays ^u^ Hope you enjoyed this chapter, cuz this one hurt to write. Behind the scenes stuff:
> 
> -This chapter and all the previous chapters were all written in a single day, with the next chapter being plotted out at the end of the day. 
> 
> -Yes, that is a flashback caused by something that was said to Reaper that reminded him of previous Geno. Is it cliche? Yes. Do I care? Nah, cuz it worked out great in showing how their relationship was like. It also showed how Reaper is a dumbass sometimes.
> 
> -This is one of a few chapters that I’m thinking of making a bonus chapter for that showed everything that happened, but from a different point of view, in this case, Geno’s.]
> 
> Other news: I said I was planning on updating twice a month next year, but that doesn't look like it'll happen. Once a month updates will resume. Otherwise, next year, I'm going to (try to) do monthly live streams on Picarto. It'll either be for Glitched Death or my other fandom: Linked Universe. Or video games, we'll see. I hope you're all enjoying this story as much as I am, we haven't even gotten to the next big plot point yet, and all of your comments and kudos really make me glad I'm sticking with it ^U^ Thank you.


	6. The Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Error finally has that meeting with Nightmare. It goes fine... sort of.
> 
> Warning(s): violence

Error followed closely behind Killer and the taller skeleton, with Dust close behind him mumbling to himself. It was eerie, to say the least, what with how dark this world seemed to be despite being outside. He couldn’t help but glance around himself as they walked, trying to see if there were any signs of life at all in this place, beyond the decaying trees and rundown buildings. Looming in the distance was a castle that was covered in black banners and other dark colors, making it seem more like a shadow than a building.

As they approached, Error could hear what sounded like hurried footsteps from inside, and he looked up just in time to see yet another skeleton, this one dressed in monochrome colors with a singular red scar on his face and a red eyelight in the socket above that.

“Honestly, you guys were taking way too long to get here. Nightmare’s already in a bad mood from earlier,” he reprimanded the group.

Killer just walked up to him and pushed past him, shooing him away from their group as they entered the castle.

“Relax, Cross. Night ain’t gonna blow up just because we had to take care of a little problem,” Killer spoke, gesturing to Error.

Cross seemed stunned for a moment upon seeing Error, watching the group pass him and leave him outside as they entered. The entryway was huge, which led to an equally large hallway, filled with banners and torches with blue flames. If Error was honest with himself, it was almost pretty. He felt a shove from behind him.

“Keep moving,” Dust practically growled.

Error nodded, hurrying to catch up with the other two, who had been waiting by grand-looking doors at the end of the hallway. When he got near, they held the doors open, and Error saw the King of Darkness himself, sitting on a dark-colored throne and looked surprised to see him.

“Heya, boss. We found this little stalker tailing Dust through a portal on a surface timeline,” he heard the gravelly-voiced skeleton say, as he entered the room fully to stand near Error.

“The new Destroyer huh. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Nightmare spoke, his surprise replaced with a sardonic smile.

“I-i wAs JuSt oUt GeTTiNg a FeW ThInGs--” a fist slamming against wood startled Error out of his explanation, and he stilled upon seeing Nightmare become annoyed.

“Liar.”

Nightmare got off of the throne and walked up to Error, easily towering over him by a few inches.

“You’re lucky that I’ve been curious about you, otherwise I would have ordered Axe to dust you the moment you stepped foot in my domain,” Nightmare grinned threateningly. Error shuddered at the uneasy feeling the other skeleton’s gaze caused, and Nightmare seemed pleased by his reaction

“Now then," Nightmare turned his back to Error, taking his place on his dark throne, "you're going to answer a few of my questions and then I'll decide what to do with you."

Error nodded quickly, still intimidated by the king of darkness. He could hear snickering behind him.

"To start with, why don't you tell me why exactly you’ve just now started to destroy the Alternate Universes."

Error took a deep breath and started talking. He told him about the Anti-Void, the voices, and the collision he saw. He talked about how he was never completely aware when he started to destroy a copy of a world. How he would ‘wake-up’ back in the Anti-Void covered in dust and numb. 

The entire time Error spoke, Nightmare watched him with his head propped up on his hand, never speaking. Once Error had finished, Nightmare sat back in his seat with his single eye closed, considering all that he had heard. Then he looked back to Error and the other skeletons in the room.

“I’ll need more time to think things over, but for the time being, you are free to stay here.” Nightmare grinned at the surprise on Error’s face, for once without any ill intent in his gaze. “I’ll make sure that you can come and go as you please.” 

“Th-tHaNk YoU,” Error stuttered, a small smile growing on his face. “I wOn’T sTaY fOr LOng.”

“And that is your decision.” Nightmare gestured to Axe, who was still beside Error, “Feel free to stay for dinner, Axe here is cooking tonight.”

Error nodded, before being grabbed by the hand and led out of the door he previously entered from. When he was out of the room, he spotted Dust holding onto him with a scowl on his face.

“You’re hiding something. Paps and I both know that isn’t the whole story that you told Nightmare,” he growled, eyelights briefly glowing red, “You’re gonna tell us what it is, or we won’t hesitate to dust you here and now.”

The air grew tense, and Error could feel the potential fight that would come from this. So he reacted on instinct. Strings flew from his fingers, pinning Dust to the wall and knocking his knife out of his hands. He struggled, anger visible on his face as Error approached him, his anger causing glitches to rage over his body and further distorting his voice.

“YoU DoN’T KnOW A FuCkINg THinG AbOuT mE, AnD It’S NoNe Of yOUr FuCkINg BuSIneSS AnYwAy,” Error’s voice glitching and screeching with rage, “tHe OnLY ReAsOn I EvEn AgREEd To ThIs MeeTInG WaS fOr My OwN CuRIoSiTy, aNd BeLiEvE mE WhEn I sAY ThAt I wIll NeVeR bE EvEn ReMOTely InTImIdATed By YoU OR AnYOnE ELsE HeRe! YoU ArE NoTHIng To Me!”

Error barely noticed that Dust was rattling in fear, he didn’t notice that his vision was so overcome with glitches that he could barely see. He didn’t notice that Axe and Killer had exited the room behind him just in time to witness him threatening Dust. 

“I’m FeD UP wItH oTHeR MoNsTeRs InTImIdATInG mE fOr No ReAsOn! AnD yOu’Re TrYiNg To GeT mE tO tAlK mOrE?! I dOn’T FuCkINg ThINk SO BuDDy!”

He didn’t react at first when he was tackled to the ground, not until his strings broke away from Dust did he struggle to get out from under the skeleton on top of him, glitched screeches coming out of his mouth. Axe didn’t get off until Error was calmer, and only then did Error see what he had done.

Black bones and torn strings hung from where Dust had been pinned to the wall, enough that he would’ve killed him had Killer and Axe not reacted as fast as they did. Dust himself was still rattling in fear, marrow dripping from where the strings had been too tight and gashes where his attacks had hit their target. There was no talking between the four of them for the longest time, but soon enough, Killer helped Dust stand and motioned for Axe to do something. He nodded in response, no emotions appeared on his face as he led Error to a living room area and had him stay there so Dust could be patched up. 

“Just… stay here and don’t do anything stupid,” he grumbled, leaving Error alone in the room.

Error couldn’t say that he felt guilty. He had DESERVED it after all… but then he felt fear. This was Nightmare’s home, after all, these were his minions, his group. What would he say to Error now that he had shown that he would harm one of them, and for something that trivial too? 

He wanted to scream, but instead, he was stopped by a hand touching his arm. He jolted back, scooting away from the touch to look up and see the monochrome skeleton from earlier.

“You okay there, buddy?” he asked, and Error slowly nodded in response.

The other didn’t seem to believe Error, but he didn’t push it, merely shrugging and taking a seat at the opposite end of the couch from Error. 

“I saw what you did to Dust.” he spoke up, a grin on his face when he made eye contact with Error, “That was pretty brutal.”

“Uh… ThAnKs?”

“You don’t need to worry about Nightmare. He’s not gonna hurt you for doing that. I mean, sure, you did almost kill Dust, but Dust was also being a pain.” Cross said, leaning back on the couch. “So just relax for a bit. Dinner will be ready soon-ish.”

Error nodded, though he didn’t believe Cross. As he had said, it was only a matter of minutes until Axe poked his head out of a sliding door across the room and said that it was time to eat.

It was a quiet dinner, no one seemed to want to talk to Error, but he didn't mind. He also tried not to pay attention to the empty seat across from him. Nightmare had seemed quite pleased when he saw Error sitting down with them. More pleased than Error thought he should be considering he had almost killed Dust, and yet, Nightmare didn’t seem bothered at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Happy birthday to me! I hope you enjoyed the continuation of that cliffhanger, hope I didn’t leave you guys _hanging_ for too long. Behind the scenes:  
-It wasn’t mentioned, but Nightmare is missing a tentacle still. I’d imagine that it takes quite a while to grow back, not to mention a ton of magic.  
-Dust was suspicious of Error from the start, and he’s still suspicious, but he now knows that he can’t mess with him or risk dying. That’s the one thing Nightmare wouldn’t tolerate, fighting to the death with other gang members is not allowed.  
-Axe is a good cook now, especially since he’s been in the gang for quite a long time. He prefers to make easy dishes and is starting to be more okay with cooking meat (as long as it’s not red meat).  
-Error is now suspicious of Nightmare but trusts him to some extent… for now at least.]__


	7. The Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reaper and Error finally see each other... but something's wrong.
> 
> [Semi-important update on things in the end-notes.]

Reaper could feel his phone vibrating in his pocket, but it only took a glance at the ID for him to ignore the call. Again. Ever since he had that breakdown in the Save Screen, Geno has been more insistent on checking in on him, even though he had texted him that he’s fine and that he should stop worrying. Of course, Geno didn’t listen, stubborn jerk that he was, and continued to try to call Reaper at least once a day, with texts twice or more per day. He couldn’t say that he was annoyed though, in fact, he was grateful that he had someone like Geno, even though it upset him that it wasn’t his Geno, even more than it used to bother him.

He sighed as the call went to voicemail, knowing that he was in for yet another text not long from now. He looked away from the phone, choosing instead to try and focus on the world he was in, seeing if he could find a “death date”. It had been, what, a few weeks since he had gotten this new job from Ink? He still hadn’t had much success finding a way to see an entire world’s expiration time, but he had certainly put in the effort, not to mention his brother, Respite’s overtime to try and help him out. 

Reaper had never actually managed to get his ability to work to a degree where he could see an entire world’s death date, not even when he was traveling through the void to get from AU to AU. However, he had gotten to the point where he could see, or rather, feel when a large number of people were dying. It was definitely a useful ability for the main part of his job.

He was just about to leave for a new AU, deciding that he wasn’t going to get anywhere if he lingered here when he felt several thousands of humans and monsters die all at once. Smiling at his luck, he shortcutted out of his location to find the AU currently being destroyed. It certainly didn’t take as long for him to find as it used to, and upon stepping out of the void, he was greeted with a sea of blue strings and dust.

He recoiled for only a moment, needing to shake himself of the momentary shock of the carnage that had greeted him, and summoned his scythe to cut through strings to find their originator. That too didn’t take long, as the monster in question was facing off against the resident fallen human and Flowey, a seemingly blank look on his face.

“Why the hell are you attacking us?! We didn’t do anything wrong!” the Flowey screeched, ducking in and out of the ground while throwing weak pellet attacks. Error didn’t respond, only dodging the attacks from both flower and human to aim his attacks at them.

Reaper could only watch for so long before the world started to deteriorate, a wall of white nothingness coming from all sides to meet in the middle. He quickly shortcutted behind Error and swung his scythe at him. The blow didn’t connect with the other’s skull, which was intended, instead the other had formed a glitchy black bone in his hand to block with. Reaper quickly noticed that the blank look that had been on the other’s face was fading, switching between confusion and seemingly growing horror.

“Y-yOu!” Error exclaimed, throwing his weight against the bone in his hand towards the other’s blade, successfully throwing Reaper a short distance away.

“Hey, human,” the god called out, keeping his gaze fixed firmly on the glitch in front of him, “start thinking about getting out of here. You aren’t gonna be able to fix this mess, so the sooner you get the Protector the better.”

He didn’t wait for a reply, once more aiming for damaging the Destroyer as much as possible with both magic and his scythe, the latter dodging each attempt with barely concealed fear. 

“S-StOp!” he dodged again, this time summoning strings to his hands and launching them at Reaper, “I DoN’t WaNt ThIs!”

“Do you think _ they _ wanted this?” 

The retort was met with a grimace, the strings from his hand being thrown and guided, despite Reaper’s attempts to avoid getting caught, even as they flew ever closer. Until one of the strings latched securely onto Reaper’s wrist.

Reaper flinched at first contact, but then looked in confusion as the supposed harmful intent was not present. He glanced back up at the Destroyer, frozen in his movements while black glitches filled his sockets. He seemed to be shaking, though his expression was unreadable. Reaper began tearing at the tether, hoping to not be attached to the other any longer than he needed to be, especially considering his inaction.

The magic quickly fell away, and Reaper only looked up long enough to see Error escaping into a portal. He reacted slowly, the fading magic felt familiar, almost nostalgic in a way for some reason, and he attempted to force through the other’s portal, only to be rejected. 

“Reaper, don’t bother with him,” a voice yelled from behind, “we need to get these two out of here!”

Reaper turned to see Ink holding the fallen human’s hand, with Flowey wrapped snugly around their arm. He nodded and shortcutted to the ink puddle they were near, jumping into it after them, as the world collapsed behind them.

* * *

Reaper had fully expected to find the inky portal unpleasant, which in a way it was since he couldn’t see anything, but it was a quick trip. When he wound up in the Doodle Sphere, he wasn’t as in awe as he thought he would be upon seeing the Protector’s home.

It was like the void, vast and mostly empty, but where the Void was dark and empty, the Doodle Sphere was bright with pages upon pages of doodles seemingly hanging in the air. He knew what they were, it was obvious from the way the page they were now in front of glitched and then vanished. The kid that was attached to Ink’s side whimpered at the space that once held their AU, but Ink didn’t seem to react. He only guided them up a path to a small cottage, and Reaper followed behind.

Upon entering, a small grayscale child stood by the door and looked straight at the human Ink had.

“_ I can take them from here, Ink _ .” they smiled, holding out a hand for the human, “ _ I know a place where you can be safe, and there are many others like you _.”

Reaper could tell that, although nervous, the rescued human was curious, and held onto the offered hand. The grayscale child nodded once to Ink before both they and the duo they had saved vanished. Once they had gone, Ink sighed loudly and walked further into the cottage to flop face down onto the couch that was near the door.

“So, uh, what now?” Reaper questioned.

“I take it things didn’t go well,” Dream’s voice sounded from further inside.

Reaper nodded, closing the door behind him and walked further into the house to find Dream sitting at a table in what resembled a kitchen/dining room. 

“I saw Error,” Reaper said, taking a seat across from the other “and we fought a bit. Though… it was strange.”

“How so?”

“Well, he never seemed to want to fight me, for some reason. Then, he landed an attack, one of his strings, and just… stopped.” he explained, Dream considering his words.

“Did anything else happen? That’s… definitely not something I or Ink has ever experienced.”

“When the attack got dispelled it felt… familiar.” Reaper sighed, rubbing at the spot the string has connected to, “I don’t think I’ve ever met the guy, but then why did I know his magic? Why was it so familiar?”

Dream looked unsure, glancing at the now snoring Ink on the couch before looking back to Reaper.

“I don’t have an answer for you, but if you’d like, I can try to find out.” Dream offered, uncertainty still lingering, “I can’t guarantee that I’ll find anything.”

“Any answers you find would be helpful. Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [This isn’t my favorite chapter, but Reaper kept fighting me to see Error at least once. So here we are. Behind-the-scenes:
> 
> -Reaper wasn’t supposed to see Error this early in the fic. The plan was he’d only catch a glimpse of him as he left the destroyed world, but that changed pretty fast.
> 
> -The cabin in the doodle sphere is supposed to be based on “His Wish”, but describing it was difficult. It’s got two stories, with the 2nd floor having two bedrooms, a side room, and a bathroom. 1st floor has a living area with a kitchen/dining area behind it and a stairway up to the 2nd floor.
> 
> -Reaper doesn’t know it’s his Geno, and neither does Dream. The idea of magic having a sort of signature probably came from somewhere, but I’m blanking on where exactly. Because Error is now Error, it doesn’t quite feel like the same magic signature, which is why it feels familiar but isn’t immediately recognizable.
> 
> -Ink is just so tired from everything at this point. Too much running around and using magic and feeling the destruction of one too many AUs, it puts a strain on how much he can take.]
> 
> Sorry to make this longer than it needs to be, but I feel like I need to say some things. I'm not putting this story on a hiatus, but I can't guarantee that the next chapter will be out on time. School is sort of kicking my butt, though the main reason is that my muse (i think that's what its called?) has been moving further away from Undertale. I still want to finish this fic, but I don't have a ton of ideas for what should happen before it gets to the end, not to mention the fact that beyond this chapter, I have no more finished chapters. I don't want to force myself to write this fic, so I won't. I hope you guys understand ^-^
> 
> TLDR: The next chapter might be late, and I'm not gonna force myself to write it. I'm not as into Undertale as I was, but I want to finish this fic.


	8. The Reaction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Error suffers the consequences of fighting Reaper.
> 
> Warning(s): panic attack near the beginning, and maybe one more? Also nightmare

Error couldn’t breathe. He had fucked up. Majorly. On top of that, he couldn’t see, vision still clouded by glitches. And to make it even worse, he was glitching so badly that it hurt. And the voices just laughed.

*Oh man, who thought that would be a good idea?*

*HA, you almost killed your ex!*

*Honestly, pay attention for once, Error*

He tried to stifle his whimpers and just find his stupid beanbag chair so he could at least be somewhat comfortable as he waited for the glitching to stop, but groping through the emptiness while blind was difficult. Then that voice spoke up.

*This really is pathetic to watch. Pull yourself together, Error.*

He cringed at the commanding tone but attempted to calm himself down enough to make the glitching disappear faster. Once he could see again, he pulled himself onto the beanbag chair and closed his eyes, just for a second. He didn’t need the sleep, not really, but he was just so tired… A few minutes wouldn't hurt, right?

* * *

_ He was in the Save Screen again, but it felt different here than normal. It felt emptier, the patch of grass and small light source were gone, and instead, he saw a familiar silhouette cloaked in dark-colored fabric. He smiled to himself and ran over, tears pricking at his sockets as he called out to Reaper. _

_ The figure turned around, but there was no happiness or warmth in his gaze. _ <strike> _ Geno _ </strike> _ paused and tried to speak, ask what was wrong, but no sound was uttered. _

_ “It’s your fault, isn’t it.” the other stated, coldly glaring at him, “You’re the reason he’s gone. Haven’t you had enough yet?” _

<strike> _ Geno _ </strike> _ tried to defend himself, tried to reason with Reaper, but he could not speak. The other scoffed, anger and annoyance filling the space between them. _

_ Reaper’s form then started to waver, his blank sockets being replaced with red eyes, and a knife in his grasp. _

_ “You haven’t learned, it seems” he spoke, his deep voice being changed to fit a more child-like form. “Maybe a few more resets will make you figure it out.” _

<strike> _ Geno _ </strike> _ stepped back, then ran as the child that had haunted him for so long began to chase him, the knife being swung at him all the while. _

_ ‘It had stopped! He was free! Why were they back?! They shouldn’t be back!’ His panicked thoughts caused him pain, more pain than he had previously felt. ‘It just wasn’t fair!’ _

_ He turned around to fire off an attack, only for the human to jump at his back, slicing through his jacket and shirt. He screamed. _

* * *

Error jolted awake, falling off of his beanbag and onto the “floor” of the Anti-void. He shakily felt at his back, where the knife had connected, only to find that there was no tear in his clothing. However, he could still feel the pain of the blow. 

He glitched, a high whining noise beginning to start from his voice. He distantly heard the voices laughing at him, with the distinct voice reprimanding him for sleeping on the job. He felt like he couldn’t breathe correctly anymore, and the voices kept getting louder, and the glitching got more intense until he couldn’t feel anything anymore.

So he crashed.

* * *

When he woke back up, he could feel something sharp poking at his leg. He jumped, and crawled away, only to find that nothing was there. Sighing in relief, he stood and brushed off imaginary dust along with the feeling of something sharp touching him. Looking around his space, he saw nothing, and yet… He didn’t want to stay here anymore. 

So he opened up a portal and stepped through without looking, thinking that anywhere was better than the endless void that held only angry voices. He practically ran away from the portal he made, slowing down after a while to stop and truly looked around, relief filling his SOUL and dispelling the tension in his bones.

There was no one around he was in a secluded cavern area of Waterfall, a bench behind him with an echo flower and a small stream running past him. He sighed in relief, no voices could reach him here and no one was around either. 

He sat down on the bench, staring up at the ceiling of the cavern and looking at the false stars. It was calming, familiar, and yet he couldn’t recall why. He closed his eyes, trying to recall a memory that he didn’t think existed. Why was Waterfall important? Why was this place in particular familiar to him? After a while he gave up, sighing in annoyed defeat at his faulty mind. This wasn't a problem earlier… right?

He didn’t realize that there was someone else at the entrance to the cave, watching him with interest and confusion.

“huh, thought no one else knew about this place.”

Error jumped up from the bench, glitching wildly as he threw out strings towards the voice. He could hear a grunt of pain, but he didn’t kill them, not yet.

“WhO ArE yOu?! W-WhY aRe YoU hErE?!”

“Easy, easy,” the other spoke, trying to placate the startled skeleton, “I’m just your friendly neighborhood skeleton who happened to find another skeleton in one of my usual napping spots.”

“i-i DoN’T TrUsT YoU.” Error could feel the other flinch in his strings, a crazed smile worked its way onto his face, “aNd YoU dIdN’t AnSwEr My QuEsTiOn.”

“h-heh, so it seems,” the other spoke, “the name’s sans, sans the skeleton.”

Error figured that would be the case, the other’s voice sounding similar to that of other skeletons he had killed, and yet this one didn't seem to care that he was around. He calmed down some, vision cleared to see the other skeleton in front of him. Ratty pink slippers, track shorts with white stripes on each side, a white t-shirt with a blue hoodie covering it, and an uneasy smile on the skull of the skeleton trapped in his strings. 

Error noticed an outstretched hand from the skeleton trapped by his strings, and his free hand acted in kind. He couldn't tell when he touched the other he felt pain almost immediately upon acting, flinching back a few feet as his magic strings tightened slightly in response. He heard a pained gasp and looked up to see a SOUL being squeezed tightly, Sans practically writhing in pain. Error, glitching wildly from the pain and the fear the other showed dropped his magic, releasing Sans.

"h-heh, th-thanks buddy. ya alright, though? you, uh, recoiled quite a bit," he spoke, rubbing a hand over his sternum as he tried to approach Error.

"D-dOn'T cOmE aNy ClOsEr!" 

Sans paused his movements, placatingly holding both hands in front of him as he backed off a bit. Error had pressed himself as close to the cave wall as he could. With a sigh, Sans walked over to the bench instead, leaning backward as he looked up at the crystals that grew on the ceiling. Error’s glitches slowly began to dissipate, and when they faded he found himself staring at the other skeleton, curiosity and slight confusion in his gaze. 

Picking himself up off of the ground, Error moved to the opposite end of the bench, sitting down and sneaking glances at the other skeleton every so often. He flinched when Sans started to chuckle, gaze now fully focused on the other. 

“i can see ya looking at me, bud,” he spoke, turning to look Error in the eyes fully, “and you look like a person who wants to talk. what’s on your mind?” 

Error’s hands were clutching at the hem of his shirt, fiddling with the thin fabric as he tried to find the words he wanted to say. He opened his mouth a few times, only to close it again. He sighed out loud in frustration, leaning back against the bench and gazing at the crystals as if they had what he wanted to say.

“WhY aRe YoU bEiNg So NiCe To Me?”

The other’s sockets widened at the question, caught off guard. 

“why wouldn’t i be nice to ya?” he asked back, and the dark skeleton shrugged.

“NoT mAnY mOnStErS aRe, FiGuReD yOu’D bE tHe SaMe.”

Sans started scratching at his cheekbone, discomforted after the admission. Error watched as the other fidgeted, seemingly in his own struggle to find words.

The silence seemed to stretch on for a while, Error beginning to feel a pull at his SOUL as he sat there. He wanted to ignore it, wanted to stay here with this Sans and just feel comfortable. Of course, it was only a matter of time until the pull turned into a tug, ever-increasing the sensation until all he would feel was _ pain. _

“I nEeD tO lEaVe,” Error spoke, standing up from the bench and turning away from the confused look on the other’s face.

“oh... will i see you again?” sans asked, but Error didn’t reply, only making a portal back to the Anti-Void and leaving.

For a while, Sans sat there, staring at where the glitchy skeleton had left. He was an outcode, Sans knew that much, but he had never heard about one like this. He had only really ever met Ink a handful of times…

Sans stood, taking a shortcut to the basement lab, digging through papers and blueprints to find the only link he had to the Universe outside of his own. With a triumphant laugh, he pulled out an old cellphone and dialed the only saved number on it.

“hello? dream? something strange just happened.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Behind the scenes stuff:  
-Error sort of got his fear of touch, and also, isn’t he forgetting something? Like a lot of things?  
-This chapter didn’t turn out great, I might've rushed it trying to get to the “good part”. But I think what I wanted to get across was all here.  
-Originally, the plan was for that voice that keeps recurring to manifest as Chara and terrorize Error so that he developed Haphephobia, but Error wanted to sleep instead. So he got a nightmare that showed how torn up he is about fighting Reaper and the fact that he isn’t who he used to be.]


	9. The Concern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A talk is had, but Reaper still won't explain anything.

Reaper was woken up by the insistent buzzing of the cell phone in his pocket, which frankly, wasn’t a new development anymore. He sat up on the guest bed he had been allowed to use during his stay in the Doodle Sphere, and for once, he picked up his phone and answered the call.

“Hell-“

“Do you know how fucking long I’ve been trying to reach you?!” Geno screeched, “You haven’t had any contact with me for  _ weeks _ , Reaper! You better have a good fucking explanation once you get here! And that’s not  _ when _ you get here, because you better be here. Today.”

Rather abruptly, the dial tone started up, Reaper sighing as he flopped back onto the bed. He understood Geno’s worry, he really did, but how could he explain all of the shit he’d been through as of late? And to do it in a way that wouldn’t make him even more worried? Practically impossible.

Knowing that he couldn’t lay there pathetically forever, he turned, stretching as he got up from the bed. Donning his usual black robe, he left the room, catching the conversation happening below.

“And you’re sure that’s what you saw?”

A pause, Reaper peered down the stairs and to the kitchen, where he could see Dream pacing as he talked on the phone.

“No no, I believe you. I just want to be absolutely sure,” Dream rubbed at his browbone, “Just-- please don’t do anything stupid? We can’t risk anything bad happening on your end, alright? … Okay, Ink, and I will try to meet up with you when we can. Goodbye.”

Dream only looked at Reaper for a moment, acknowledging the god with a nod before slumping into a chair at the table, hands propping his skull up by his forehead.

“Rough talk?” Reaper asked, getting a strained chuckle out of the other.

“I should be asking you that, correct?” Dream spoke, peering at the god as he made his way to the coffee pot, brewed specifically for him considering no one else drank the bitter-tasting drink.

“You mean Geno?”

“Who else besides Respite would call you on your phone?” Dream laughed, sitting up from his position, “You should probably go see him soon, you know.”

Reaper said nothing as he gathered up his mug, sitting opposite Dream. They sat in silence for a moment, the only sounds being the gentle ticking of a clock and the god indulging in his caffeine fix. 

“You know you can’t avoid talking about the past forever, you know. I have a feeling Geno already suspects something is different.”

“The whole point of me seeking him out in the first place was so I  _ didn’t _ have to talk about it.”

Reaper huffed as Dream shook his head, an unsettling mix of emotions clawing at the god’s SOUL. 

“I can read emotions, Death, and yours tell a different story than what you speak,” Dream smiled softly, “It’s okay to talk to others about how you feel, and I’m sure your brother and Geno would be happy to listen, along with myself of course.”

The god didn’t respond, harshly putting his mug on the table causing the guardian to flinch. He stood, summoning his scythe and heading for the door, hand resting on the knob only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned sharply, scythe poised to strike, only to pause at the sight of Ink looking at him worriedly.

“I may not’ve been here for all of that conversation, but, Reaper, you need to at least explain what happened last time you were there, right?” Ink questioned, Reaper staring at him from under his hood, “From what I heard from Geno last time I visited, you shook him up really bad. He explained what happened and was nearly in tears, too. You scared the poor guy when you came to, brushed him off, and just left.”

A pit opened up in his SOUL at that, the fact that he caused that had guilt clawing at him. A small whine left him, sharply turning back to the door with more hurried movements to get it open and himself out than before. He wasted no time opening a portal to the Timeline Geno came from, getting into the void quickly, nearly falling on top of the small skeleton when he entered.

He squawked at the feeling of arms wrapping around him, sudden and yet, it was far from unwelcome. 

“Reaper,” the small form breathed out, burying his face in the other’s cloak.

It took only a moment for the god to wrap his arms around the other, but he couldn’t find the words to speak, chest heavy with unshed tears and a growing voice echoing in his mind, chanting _my fault._ _My fault. My fault. My f--_

“You’re an idiot,” Geno spoke, muffled slightly by the heavy fabric.

Reaper laughed, strained, and not quite as strong as it once was. The small skeleton looked up at him, tears collecting in his sockets despite the glare he was trying to give. 

“I’m sorry for making you worry about me,” Reaper warbled, tears starting to make their descent down his face, Geno’s joining soon after.

“It’s what friends do, right? I just--” Geno huffed, dragging the god over to the ugly beige couch, sitting them both down, “I couldn’t get your expression out of my head, how sad and simultaneously scared you looked. I assumed you were going to leave and never come back…”

“I would never do that to you,” Reaper gripped the other tighter, thoughts going back to before, tears beginning to fall faster, “I d-don’t want anyone to go th-through that.”

Geno ran his hand up and down the god’s back, an attempt to soothe the worries and stop the tears. Reaper tried to control himself, stop his sudden need to cling to the small skeleton next to him. After a few minutes, it faded, and he returned to control.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?”

Reaper sighed, letting go of the other and moving out of his space, hand rubbing away the lingering tears.

“I… I know I should,” he faltered, looking up at the ‘sky’ of the void, “But I can’t… not yet anyway.”

“But Reaper--”

“I’ll tell you this much,” he interrupted, looking the small skeleton in the eyes as he spoke, “Before I met you… there was another skeleton. One that looked just like you that I was close with…”

Geno tilted his head to the side, frown settled onto his face. Reaper fought to control his thoughts from comparing them again, sighing and looking away.

“I still have questions, but…” Geno took a deep breath, grasping Reaper’s hand and squeezing it slightly, “I’ll wait until you’re ready to answer them.”

Reaper smiled at that, returning the squeeze.

“I appreciate it… I really do.”

They sat in silence for a while, trading squeezes back and forth until Geno let go to stand up, stretching his arms above his head. He turned, the smile on his face quirked up at the side.

“I do still need to yell at you over how worried you made me.”

Reaper laughed, a much more genuine and real laugh, sockets wrinkling at the sides. He could hear Geno giggling as well, and as he recovered, he found that he was happier now, that he wasn’t as sad. Though Geno did, in fact, yell out his frustrations, their smiles never wavered. 

_ ‘Things might just turn out okay after all.’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Behind-the-scenes stuff:  
-Dream was only supposed to tell Reaper to go and see Geno already. That whole conversation was unplanned. Same with Ink showing up.  
-There was actually supposed to be a screaming match, but when I was writing this after not touching it for so long, I realized that it wouldn’t fit.  
-This entire chapter was written in a single day over maybe two hours, and no, I didn’t double-check for errors. Also, no beta, we die like Hyrule Warriors.]
> 
> Okay, and here’s a similar note to what was on Chapter 7: I'm not putting this story on a hiatus, but I can't guarantee that the next chapter will be out on time. I don’t have any chapters finished/queued up for posting, and I’m still very much deep in the Linked Universe fandom (which I highly recommend to anyone who loves Legend of Zelda). I still want to finish this fic, but I don't have a ton of ideas for what should happen before it gets to the end, so catch me on Tumblr asking for prompts or ideas at some point. I also refuse to force myself to write this fic or any fic for that matter, so I won't try to stick to deadlines and risk writing something terrible. I hope you guys understand and thanks for sticking with me despite all this. ^u^
> 
> TLDR: Story still isn’t on hiatus, but I can’t promise any deadlines. I’m (sort of) running out of ideas for where this should go, and I’m still deep into my other fandom. Thanks for reading my story, I love and appreciate all of you. ^u^

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you've enjoyed this story so far. ^u^ All comments and kudos are appreciated.
> 
> This fic was partially inspired by a few AfterDeath fics I read by Golden_Au -> https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golden_Au/pseuds/Golden_Au
> 
> But the main idea was from SlimeyBonez [18+ only twitter] here's the link to that-> https://twitter.com/BonezSlimey/status/1089438170545033216
> 
> Lastly, here's my Tumblr-s and Twitter, follow me for inconsistent writing, occasional drawing, and very rare posting:  
https://silverdragonms.tumblr.com/  
https://silverdragon-imagines-blog.tumblr.com/  
https://twitter.com/SilverDragonMS


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